"It doesn't matter. At least, we will destroy the entire Baltic fleet today, and Major General Harrel also needs our help to solve those annoying destroyers! Notify the fleet and prepare for the battle, and start with the destroyers on the periphery!" Major General Hopman ordered.

A destroyer team located in front turned first and rushed towards the Russian fleet that was evacuating north. After the flanking Russian destroyers found their opponents, they must come out to intercept. The Russian fleet is a main fleet covered by thick smoke. In this case, the visibility of the main ship is also very low. If the German destroyer rushes in, the main ship will not be guaranteed to be struck by lightning. Therefore, even if there are a large number of German bombers hovering in the sky, and even if there are four powerful light cruisers behind the German destroyer, the Russian destroyer troops must rush out of the smoke screen and block the opponent to the death!

"Each ship is free to attack, target Russian destroyers! We can put some distance in!" Looking at the Russian destroyers rushing towards them at high speeds of more than 25 knots, Major General Hopman ordered.

At a distance of 7,800 meters, before the destroyers of both sides encountered, the 175MM main guns of the four light cruisers had already fired the first round of volleys!

Boom! Boom! Accompanied by water columns, the Russian destroyers charging through shrapnel and water mist. The Russians moved very fast and kept evading maneuvers on the sea. They shuttled through the barrage, like dancing on the tip of a knife.

However, good luck cannot be with them! When the main gun of the German light cruiser gradually leveled with the change of distance, the entire dangerous shooting range expanded. With the help of the 8-meter rangefinder and new fire control at the top of the battleship, the shooting accuracy of the light cruiser team rose sharply!

At the forefront was the Russian Eighth Destroyer Team, with a total of six destroyers. Dexterity and Ability formed the first attack formation with Thunder! At a distance of 6,500 meters, Dexterity was first hit by Colburg, and a 175MM high-explosive bomb directly blows half of the front bridge of the destroyer. The other shell lands on the triple-mounted 18-inch torpedo in the middle of the Dexterity hull!

Everyone present saw a huge fireball suddenly rising from the sea! The picy acid explosive in the high-explosion bomb directly detonated the 9 18-inch torpedo equipped on the Russian destroyer! The violent explosion directly to pieces of the more than 1,200-ton destroyer into pieces the size of a palm! Some of the fragments were even thrown to a height of hundreds of meters, and then they fell like snowflakes into sea areas with a diameter of more than one kilometer.

And this explosion seemed to be a signal! At this distance, the hit rate of the 150MM and 105MM secondary guns of German destroyers and cruisers rose sharply. The fireballs when the artillery fired almost covered half of the hull. Every minute, hundreds of shells roared towards the Russian destroyer team that was charging. If the destroyer dog fight was simply fighting, the firepower of the Russian destroyer was almost the same as the other side, and the number of torpedoes was the dominant one. However, when the German light cruiser provided artillery firepower on the periphery, the entire balance was broken. Before the Russian destroyer entered the lightning distance, they were like a group of musket arrays of light cavalry charges, and every step was covered with blood!

The Ganlian was bitten by two 2,000-ton S131 and S140 destroyers. The two warships had a total of 8 150MM guns and fired tons of shells at the poor Russian destroyer. The latter could only use three 102MM guns to counterattack. The two sides hit from 4,500 meters all the way to 1,500 meters. In order to avoid being detonated, the Russian destroyer fired all the torpedoes early, and the torpedo released at a longer distance did cause some trouble to the other side.

But in the end, the brave destroyer was hit by four consecutive 150MM shells at close range. The entire middle part of the battleship was like a hot pot, and flames and high-temperature steam covered the entire hull, and the influx of sea water collided with the boiling boiler. A few minutes later, the destroyer, which had been beaten into a floating ruin, was finally killed.

The other two destroyers of the Thunder and the 8th Russian destroyer team were ultimately unable to escape the fate of destruction. The Thunder was destroyed by the Strasbourg light cruiser, and the other two destroyers died under the lightning strike of the German destroyer. However, in the end, before they sank, the torpedoes against the Russians also destroyed a German destroyer. The war between the two sides lasted for about a quarter of an hour. After the war, various debris, broken wooden boards, flags, bright red blood and incomplete corpses floated on the sea, telling people that the essence of war is to kill more efficiently!

"Are the Russians going to fight to the death?" Shortly after Hopman's fleet had just destroyed a destroyer detachment of the Russian Navy, another group of destroyers appeared in their sight again. The Russian destroyers Novik, Ukrainian, Cossack, and Fear, and six torpedo boats rushed towards the German fleet like a group of preying sharks, trying to disperse the opponent further.

"We need to be careful when gathering the fleet. They can't escape. Even if they can get rid of us, they can't escape the bombers in the air. And the Hippel fleet waiting outside the Gulf of Finland." At this moment, Hopman was unusually calm. It was not him who was anxious now, but the Russians! He didn't need to put all his strength in it now. The number of Russian destroyers and torpedo boats exceeded his expectations, so in order to better attack his opponents, he needed to rely on the appropriate formation and combat environment.

"Major General Harrel, our reinforcements have arrived." The correspondent handed over the newly translated telegram. Just as the Russians were separating the second batch of destroyers, the seventh and eighth bombers squadrons, which were the finalists, also flew over the battlefield. A considerable number of these bombers carried small bombs of the 100KG and 50KG grades, specifically used to deal with small warships or suppress air defense firepower on the surface of the ship.

"Now the Russians' fast battleship is still shrouded in smoke screens and cannot be bombed. Let the new squadron help our colleagues on the sea first." Major General Harrell said. "Order, bombers carrying small bombs attack Russian destroyers, bombers carrying heavy bombs and torpedoes meet with the aircraft group, and prepare to stand by! The Russians cannot stay in the smoke screen for another day!"

A team of bombers left the group and began to lower their altitude and pounced on the Russian destroyers on the distant sea. They carried a large number of small bombs, usually paired with 12 50KG bombs or 6 100KG bombs. At the same time, in order to facilitate the strafing mission, the machine gun reserve capacity was also increased! It was specially used by the Luftwaffe to deal with small warships!
Chapter completed!